Are you looking for a way to put PowerPoint slideshows on your webpages or eCourseware (D2L) content pages? Check out a free add-on to PowerPoint called iSpring that allows you to convert a PowerPoint to Flash. It is not a Microsoft product but is fully integrated with PowerPoint as an add-on and appears to be a reliable product used by many corporations such as IBM and Boeing.

iSpring will include any narrations, transitions, or animations that were created in PowerPoint. (PowerPoint 2007 greatly improved their animation feature for better learning dynamics.) The end product is a standalone Flash movie on your computer that is much smaller in file size than the original ppt file. Such file can then be uploaded to eCourseware or UMdrive and linked accordingly. You may download iSpring truly for free, not just a trial. See my embedded guide below for using iSpring.

 

Here’s what you can do to try it:

1. Download the free iSpring Converter software.
2. Open PowerPoint, create your slideshow and add any transitions, animations or narration desired using PowerPoint’s native features.
3. Click the new iSpring Converter menu within PowerPoint and publish as Flash.

iSpring also gives you the option of publishing your Flash video to their free Slideboom web streaming service, where they will host your converted Flash movie and allow you to embed it on any other webpage, such as on UMdrive or an eCourseware content page. Embedding allows the Flash movie to play right on your course page in context. I have a free account with Slideboom and have uploaded directly from PowerPoint several iSpring Flash movies that play and sound very nice, even in full screen view. Slideboom will give you the link and embed codes for each video.

UofM faculty may want to consider regularly using iSpring-Slideboom as a solution for creating narrated or animated slideshows for web use. Then you can embed your multimedia shows directly in eCourseware.

 

Digital natives are attracted to learning via technology for three key reasons, according to Susan Kovalik (Federal Way Mirror, The Ins and Outs of Student Engagement, December 10, 2008). Kovalik writes, "Today’s students are more thoroughly engaged in those activities that appeal to their creativity, their competitiveness, and their need to socialize than any time in our history." Being the father of three teens, that is an understatement.

Creativity, competitiveness, socialization. Those three ideas are a far cry from the image of a college student up at 2:00 a.m., alone, competing against none other than a grade scale, attempting to recreate in her mind the professor's understanding of four chapters of textbook, which is in turn a mental construct of a stranger's view of the course. Effective engagement of digital natives is the challenge of this decade and it is closing fast. Kovalik is very helpful as she attempts to bridge that canyon. She goes on to lay out nine elements of learning and then connects them to digital resources, as outlined below.

Ideal Learning Environment

1. Absence of threat
2. Meaningful content
3. Choices
4. Enriched environment
5. Movement to enhance learning
6. Adequate time
7. Immediate feedback
8. Collaboration
9. Mastery (application)

Ideal Learning Environment Matched with Digital Resources

1. There is an absence of threat at some level where peers or a teacher are not present.
2. They make content meaningful using a variety of tools in a combination of ways to suit individual needs and interests.
3. There are unlimited choices in the gathering and presenting of information; their learning becomes interactive and multifaceted.
4. They enrich their research with a variety of modes of presentation skills, developing new forms of evaluation formats and critical thinking opportunities.
5. Movement — with the assistance of mirror neurons, the neurons that watch movement, their bodies are mirroring the action; their bodies are reacting even as they watch others on their screens move.
6. They are in charge of their own time and will work at their own pace as long as their curiosity and interest is sustained.
7. As they discover and uncover information, there is immediate feedback that allows them to expand their thinking, check other sources and engage experts where possible.
8. They collaborate/socialize with those they have something in common with expanding their connection worldwide and paving the way for their future.
9. They will stay with a "game" or project until they have achieved mastery.

Educational institutions serve their faculty and students well when they clarify which technologies can be best used to address an ideal learning environment as described above. Providing clear guides and support for how to use those services for dynamic student engagement would be even more excellent.

How can higher education improve an at-risk student's chances of succeeding in a course and in a degree program? That is the question being strategically addressed by a number of schools with a combination of concerned administrators, faculty and technologists and is referred to generally as early warning strategies. Let's examine some efforts underway to maximize technology to improve student retention.

Purdue's Retention Early Warning System

Purdue is one example. Last week I read Michael Feldstein's e-Literate blog on Why the Retention Early Warning Critics Are Wrong. Feldstein reviewed two presentations at Educause 2008 entitled Multiple Perspectives of Using Analytics to Support Student Success and Academic Analytics: Using Institutional Data to Improve Student Success by Drs. Arnold, Campbell, and Hellen. The presentations focused on Purdue's Retention Early Warning System, and Feldstein's blog is a short and good read for those interested in technical solutions as part of an approach for successful retention strategies.

The Purdue Retention Early Warning System attempts to assist the faculty in maximizing a student's chances to succeed in a course. To that end, Purdue has begun to systematically with technology measure retention risk and provide encouraging reminders to seek help for success. Let's examine

Measuring Risk

Student retention risk is measured by three factors (preparation, effort, and help-seeking behavior) within a comprehensive academic database.

1. Preparation Factor: A score is assessed based on the student's academic history, such as past grades, test scores, class rank, course transcript, etc. If the preparation score falls below a preset level, it flags the early warning database to track that student's progress during the semester in any particular class, which is the Effort Factor.
2. Effort Factor: A score is assigned for various expressions of the student's attempts to be successful in the course, such as class grades, frequency of logins to Purdue's WebCT CMS system, participation in class discussion, history of turning in assignments, completing tests on time, etc. Most CMS systems should provide such data. Perhaps another name for this tracking could be the Task Completion Factor, since effort is not always accurately accessed by the technology.
3. Help-seeking Behavior Factor: The score here is based on how the student is taking advantage of academic services outside of the classroom, such as faculty office hours or tutoring sessions.

Providing Encouragement

Purdue takes the following action based on the measuring risk score.

1. Color Flagging: The database converts the numerical score into color codes of green, yellow, or red, which is updated weekly.
2. Messages are sent to students with yellow or red flags to remind and encourage them to take advantage of special academic services. Message intervals are based on the color and timing of the semester. The system uses both email and text to deliver the messages and the focus of the wording is always to help the student success in the course and program.
3. When class failure or withdraw failing appears imminent, phone calls to the students are implemented for red flags at critical times during the semester.

Feldstein points out in his review that the technology is only doing what all good faculty would seek to do but perhaps in a more consistent and timely manner.

Academic Analystics Paper by Campbell and Oblinger

The just mentioned John Campbell and Diana Oblinger have also co-authored a paper freely available via an Educause PDF download entitled Academic Analytics. According to the authors, Academic Analytics seeks to connect "institutional student performance data with statistical techniques and predictive modeling to help faculty and advisors determine which students may face academic difficulty, allowing interventions to help them succeed." The authors highlight "what IT and institutional leaders need to understand about academic analytics, including changes it may require in data standards, systems, processes, policies, and institutional culture."

Starfish Early Alert

David Yaskin, former VP of Blackboard, has launched an academic technology startup service called Starfish Retention Solutions Inc. On October 28, 2008, they announced the Starfish EARLY ALERT Beta Program, which is to be released in 2009 as software as a service (SaaS). Starfish focuses on assisting universities to improve student retention and graduation success by providing database software solutions that tie into existing LMS services, such as Desire2Learn. Yaskin's team has been researching in collaboration with the IMS Global Learning Consortium how higher education is using early warning systems, such as at Purdue and Sinclair Community College. Their best practice conclusions thus far have been integrated into EARLY ALERT, which attempts to provide three levels of retention services:

• Enabling the campus community to raise flags when a student is in trouble
• Connecting the student to the people and services that might help them
• Determining which services are helping students the most so an institution can optimize its offering

Below is a screenshot of how the service applies institutional data for the at risk student's benefit.

The following institutions among fifteen in total are participating in the EARLY ALERT beta program:

• Arizona State University, Business School
• Gallaudet University
• George Washington University
• Kettering University
• Madison Area Technical Colleges
• South Arkansas Community College
• Utah State University 

According to Starfish Solutions, EARLY ALERT currently integrates with Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, Sakai, Angel Learning, portals, and other solutions. I emailed Starfish Solutions to see if Desire2Learn is in the picture for their release next year and they affirmed that they are working with D2L and client campuses for a beta test.

Retention Related Links:

Student Success / Student Experience White Paper

• Purdue University Strategic Planning Committee Tiger Team Report, March 10, 2008. "Student success is defined as an intentional experience that leads to a degree, intellectual and personal growth, and prepares a student for life and a career in a dynamic, global society."

Mining Real-Time Data to Improve Student Success in a Gateway Course

•  Summary presentation PDF by Laurie Iten, Kim Arnold, and Matt Pistilli. Seminar at Eleventh Annual TLT Conference, Purdue University, March 4, 2008.

Helping Community College Students Beat the Odds

• Inside HigherEd.com October 8, 2008 article regarding model retention services at Hudson Valley Community College, a State University of New York institution.

A great application of Web 2.0 services is for class assignments. Usually for free you and your students can sign up for many Web 2.0 services and have a great tool for creating course work for practice or grade. An example is Know the News from Link TV. Students can pick a current news story from standard TV news broadcasters and can rate or remix it with their own content. Here's Know the News' own explanation of their services:

Why Know the News? The games and tools here at knowthenews.tv will let you know TV news in a new way. Compare news coverage from around the world, test your knowledge of how news is shaped, and shape some yourself. Know the News is part of the national satellite channel Link TV’s Global Pulse News Service. Global Pulse, Mosaic, and Pulso Latino contrast and analyze news coverage produced by more than 70 national broadcasters. 

After signing up for free, in the Remixer Menu, you get the below menu options. I chose Global Pulse Remixer, the third one down.

Then I picked a clip from NBC's nightly news and started to remix it with my own report, as shown below. Students could paste the link from their remix in their online course under dropbox, discussion, or wherever the faculty points.

The main idea is to give students the opportunity to critically look at news and make choices for others to view about how they would present the story differently.

Written by Roy Bowery 

Students need to be prepared in their careers to use a variety of media in presentations. Bulleted text in PowerPoints will put any audience to sleep. One way to add media to a presentation (whether a PowerPoint, eCourseware page, blog, wiki, webpage, etc.) is to link or embed video from Internet video services, such as YouTube or BrightCove. I found a new service that makes that task easier while I was scanning today's RSS news feed from PC Magazine on Hands On with VideoSurf's Video Search Engine. 

The article announces that VideoSurf was released this week as a free video search engine that does the following:

1. In VideoSurf's search box, you enter a keyword or person's name that relates with your presentation.
2. VideoSurf will search all the major video service sites for that text, including commercial and consumer productions. (It searches a dynamic index of web-based videos' titles, tags, and visual content.)
3. You identify the actual segment of the selected video that you wish to show your audience.
4. Copy the embed code for that segment and paste within the HTML editor of your webpage.
5. Your audience then clicks play to watch that segment within your page.

This is a quote from VideoSurf's About page:

VideoSurf has created a better way for users to search, discover and watch online videos. Using a unique combination of new computer vision and fast computation methods, VideoSurf has taught computers to “see” inside videos to find content in a fast, efficient, and scalable way. Basing its search on visual identification, rather than text only, VideoSurf’s computer vision video search engine provides more relevant results and a better experience to let users find and discover the videos they really want to watch. With over 10 billion (and rapidly growing!) visual moments indexed from videos found across the web, VideoSurf allows consumers to visually navigate through their results to easily find the specific scenes, people or moments they most want to see.

Below is a sample embed from VideoSurf based on my search text "presentations". My context could be "How to Use Variety in Presentations". Before the embedded video, I would type:

Please watch the movie below. It's a 2-minute segment from a 1957 NBC Hitchcock TV episode The Dangerous People. After viewing, please add a comment to this blog in reply to this question: What presentation methods did Alfred Hitchcock use to introduce his show?